Saturday 9/17:
Boarded airplane w/o problems. Well at least little
problems. Tandem got stuck in baggage scanner but they eventually
got it scanned and did not open the cases. In Charlotte we had a
hour and a half lay over. Managed to find a BBQ place in the
airport that wasn't too bad, esp because we were in the airport.
A bit of fun in Charlotte came later when a gate change and a hurry to
catch the plane we managed to walk out the wrong gate and was in the
process of boarding the plane. The stuardess said my carry on
would not fit and it would be stored in the cargo bay. I asked
where I would be able to pick it up and she said that when we got to
Savanna GA that it would be waiting for me when I exit the plane.
"Wait..." I said... "Savanna? Isn't this plane going to
Chattanooga?" The stuardess said "No I don't think so. Wait
let me ask the pilot. Nope we are going to Savanna." Um.
Well on that we immediatly left the plane and grabbed our carry ons and
headed back to the gate! That woulda been very bad if we had
taken off. The girl at the check in said she woulda caught the
mistake... OK.

We finally made it to Chattanooga and got our bags. At the
baggage claim we met Park Ranger Alan who was to carry us to Harrison
Bay Park. Once at the park we put the bike together in one of the
shelters/cabins and then took it for a test ride. On a steep hill
(>10%) we were struggling to climb and I decided to test the granny
gear. The chain did not shift properly and proceed to fall
off. We stalled and fell down. I got a few road cherrys
[ED: they hurt more now after the event then during the week] and
Juliet got a few bruses. After hurting our pride we messed around
for a few miles more and then went back to camp. We ran into
Paul, Paul and Pam who were just getting in and I invited them to stay
in our cabin. The way I saw it there were 3 bunk beds in the
cabin and it made no sense to pitch a tent and have to deal with
tearing it down in the morning and trying to catch the boat that was
leaving at 7:30AM sharp even if YOU were not on it! Dinner was
served on the Park Service and after there was a gathering where Ranger
Danny, David of TDOT (Tenn Dept of Transportation), a guy who was
telling us that some of the money we spent on the trip was going to
help build the Cumberland Trail, a linear park (hiking only) that runs
from the North border to the South border of Tenn near where we were
biking. Also Bubba of Bubba's Pampered Pedalers and Harold of "We
Shine to Blind" or better known as the bike detailer gave their speals
about pitching a tent for you or providing [ED: EXCELLENT] coffee for
you each morning. I had met Harold in the Sebring Bike Festival
at the Kennelworth Lodge years ago and knew of his excellent bike
cleaning service but did not know he traveled around to events this far
North or that on these larger events he provided coffee, towel and
smoothie services [ED I owe him $8 for loans on smoothies :) ]

After that we turned in and got some good sleep. Later we found
we were going to need it!

Sunday 9/18:
Woke up early and got dressed. Went to get a cup of coffee from
Harold coffee service... Most excellent columbian. Juliet got a
cup of the french roast. Still trying to wake up we hauled our bags
down to the semi in the dark. Now it seems we are getting behind
and we need to hurry to get on the boat. Not to fear it is just
after 7AM. We rode the bike around to the dock and started
walking down to the boat. The front lights gave it an eerie look
nearly UFO in nature. Just as we got to the boat we were told
that no more bikes would fit on it. We must turn around and walk the
bikes to a semi that will haul them to the start. When we got to
the trailer it seemed a long time waiting so I opened the trailer and
started putting some bikes in along the walls until the cardboard
showed. Shortly after the rangers showed and I helped a bit
longer and then headed to the boat. We got on board and walked
around. A neat little river boat. Well breakfast was
suppose to be served so I went to check it out. Small (frozen)
bagles, not-nicely-cooked sausage links, some yogert and grapes and
bannanas. Hmmm... Not quite what I expected (where were the
eggs)...

The trip on the boat was plesant enough and it allowed a bit of
introductions and learning about the 280+ other riders we were riding
with on this 7 day journey. After a time however, I was getting
jumpy and wanted to get to the bike and start riding. At one
point we passed through a lock at one of the famous TVA dams on the
river and that was kinda neat. But again once past that I could
tell that several people were done with the boat trip and ready to
ride. OK. Now we are at our destination and we park the
boat near the Delta Queen (paddle boat that was hiding from the
hurricane). We headed out with several folk grabbing bikes that
were on the boat and walked out. We climbed up an embankment and
at the top were the rest of the bikes carefully layed out on large
cardboard sheets. Very nice. We found our bike and headed
out on the road.

Getting out of town was a bit busy and I can see why taking the river
boat to avoid the other side of town made some sense. Once out
and taking the left turn into the country the road got quieter and
hilly. We were near our first climb. What a way to wake up
the legs! Today was to be only 60 miles but with 5000 feet of
climbs (we took the long route). We busted down a nice downhill
bit and began pulling a few guys (tandems always get some flys enjoying
riding beind the tandem "bus"). These guys were near us during
the climb, one in front of us and one behind us. We were climbing
very well on this approx 6% grade. Eventually we made it to the
top and stopped at the rest stop. There were quite a lot of
others there and eventually two other tandems pulled up. One was
John and Carrol who we would talk with quite often during the
trip. The other was Mark and Jan. They looked like a FAST tandem
team. Juliet and I took off again and bombed down the hill and on
the way... Eventually we got to the next stop at a fire
station. This I believe was after the second big climb which for
some reason felt less painful than the first one. I suspect it is that
it was about the same grade and our legs knew what to expect. We
climbed both of today's "hills" in the middle ring and the 30T rear
gear. After the stop at the fire station we got back on the road
and started churning our way to get to the finish of the ride in
Dunlap's Coak Oven Park. As we do this we pick up a few flys and
some folks that pass-and-re-pass us as we go up and down the rollers
along the way. Eventually we get to Dunlap and to Coke Oven Park to set
up camp. We pick a place to camp and I said "hi" to our
neigbors... One named Jim who we rode in with. After setting up
camp and getting my massage from Glen the therapist following the
caravan... We ate dinner, showered and then went to the Coke Oven Park
Musem. This place was quite interseting as it was an old coke
foundary when companies like US STEEL were king. It fell into
disrepair and turned into a dump. Fortunatly some locals
including a previous mayor of Dunlap put effort in to clean the place
and aquired the land. If you saw the before pictures you would
not believe that the place was a dump. It looks like any very nice
forest park. However you could walk around and see the old coke
ovens and the machinery used to do this. The musem was full of
pictures and bits and pieces of the foundary. A very nice bit of
history in preservation for future generations. Again it is time
for bed. My legs thank me that I got a massage but they are not
happy knowing that the toughest climb is tomorrow.

Monday 9/19:
Being a short day we took our time packing. I got the morning
started with a cup of Columbian coffee from Harold's coffee service...
Most excellent coffee.. Juliet got the French Roast. That
really woke her up! OK off to breakfast. This was breakfast
bureto morning. You got to make your own so I decided to just get
a scoop of each of the "fixin's" and just kinda call it a scrambled
omlet. It ended up being eggs, ground sausage, mushrooms, cheeze
and salsa. I grabbed a cup of orange juice and one of milk and
found a seat. YUM!

Eventually we left to tear down camp. And tear is the appropriate
word. Somehow I forgot my hammer and stake puller... So when I
went to pull out the stakes I had to pull using the tent and I tore out
a loop. YIKES! Then I tried pulling out anotther stake and it
broke! YEAOW! OK so we will deal with that later. Keep
packing... Eventually we got our stuff on the truck and then we
fiddled around the park until Danny told us to VAMOS. Apparently
we were now the only ones left in the park. So we left.

Shortly we caught who I thought were the stongest tandem team at this
even, Mark and Jan. They were taking it easy because it was a
short day... We pressed on turning North on Lower Valley road
which was a nice quiet and fairly smooth road that had a few rollers
along the way. The weather was excellent and Juliet and I talked
the whole way along this road. When we got to Pikesville we
stopped at a rest stop which was located at a school. There was
some mention the day before that there were to be a giving out of
bicycle helmets to the children at this school which we missed by the
time we got there. Anyway we took a long break and talked to
several folk. In Pikeville we found an ATM to get some
cash. We took a peak around the town to see what there was and
then we headed up the hill to Falls Creak Falls State Park. What
we didn't know, really, was that this hill was the toughest climb of
the entire trip. Two miles into the climb the grade changed from
fairly tough switchbacks to a road that went straight up the
ridge. It had to be 12% grade! A lot of folk were walking
this section. We stuck it out and at one point I tried to shift
into the granny but hte tandem just baulked and made loud clicking
sounds. Knowing if the chain poped off that we would fall over, I
decided to put it back to the middle ring. I asked Juliet if she
wanted to stop and have me force the bike to the granny gear but she
had entered "determined to clib it" mode and said she would rather
tought it out in the middle ring than stop. We continued climbing
this section and my arms began to ache from pulling on the handle
bars. But we climbed. We didn't stop! We made
it! Man was that tough. I'm going to get the mechanic to
look at this granny gear tonight!

After a few rollers along the ridge and a bit of a downhill we made it
to the park. The roads in the park were short and steep.
Our legs were still tired from the big climb and the bike decided to be
kind to us and actually shifted into the granny this time! We
made it to the camp site and began to look for a place to pitch the
tent.

To our surprise there were still some nice cabins in some shade and so
we decided to grab a cabin instead of dealing with the tent. The
cabins also had power so we could charge up all of our gear (GPS,
phones, camera)... Nice! The cabin was also next to a
shower/bathroom so I jumped into the shower. After that the
"easy" day we thought we were going to have (Because it was only 42
miles) turned out to be a kicker... I had to take a nap before I got up
and looked around the camp.

After my nap I went exploring and found the free sodas and took a
few. When I got back to the camp I met our neighbors in the
adjacent cabin... Jim and Scott. They were also from Florida..
.Around Inverness. Later that evening we went to dinner with them
and a girl named Jackie who lived in north east Tenn. After a
LARGE and VERY GOOD meal at the park's restaurant (roast beef, chicken,
beef ribs.. SUPER YUM and lots of good veggies and such). we went
back to camp and turned in early. Tomorrow was the Century ride!